Although Frostechnic started business in the commercial refrigeration market,

our scope of design & manufacture spans way beyond a condensing unit

& even a refrigeration plant! Frostechnic’s first introduction into the industrial

refrigeration market was back in ‘94 when Holroyd Meek decided to

open a big distribution cold store literally next door to our factory unit.

We thought it would be a shame to miss out on an opportunity like this,

& although Frostechnic had never undertaken any major installation work,

we had manufactured panels for industrial plant, so we ventured into

finding out who the main refrigeration contractor on the project was.

 

 

This didn’t take long & after successful negotiation the contract was won

for the complete electrical installation of the refrigeration plant, including

supply of all of the electrical control panels. This included 132kW electronic

soft start units, Form 4 configuration, 2000 amp bus bar chamber, integrating

the PLC with both a Trend monitoring system & proprietary compressor

electronics & an ammonia leak detection system. The contract was completed

inside the program time & commissioned by Frostechnic to the delight

of the refrigeration contactor & at a much lower cost than the original budget.

Since then we have provided a complete package on several industrial cold

stores up & down the country.

 

 

Our success at interpreting the needs of our customers extends beyond

refrigeration. We were asked to provide a control solution for washing

out the inside of road going tankers. This included controlling the flow from

high pressure nozzles depending on the cargo. Chocolate needs a higher

pressure to clean out than, say, orange juice, but orange juice needs a higher

concentration of cleaning agent to water. Every tanker is different.

In addition to the complete installation of the pumps & control panels, we also

used a PLC with a Human Machine Interface (like a small computer screen on

the front of the panel), to make it as simple as possible for the operators to

select the correct settings for their product. A user friendly selection screen

revolutionised the process & interlocks ensured that the pump nozzles were

correctly secured prior to use, making for a safer working environment.

Our engineers still attend site on a regular basis to ensure that everything

is running smoothly and to add any other product settings to the system.

 

 

Frostechnic is a nominated contractor for Wessex Water & have provided

& installed control panels for many of their generators. Where Gencon II

controllers are utilised, fitting a modem gives us the ability to remotely operate

the generators, and also to monitor any fault conditions that may occur, from

our offices. Any faults can then be reported to Wessex Water central operations.

One of the criteria on these panels was to enable peak lopping capabilities.

This means that in the event of a power surge on the national grid, the generators

automatically start and export power to the grid, thus avoiding the need to bring

another power station online. This works very well and pays big dividends to Wessex,

utilising a more or less dormant generator.

 

 

Frostechnic has recently completed a project in Sweden for a petrochemical company.

This was the control panel for a pigging system. A pigging system is a bung that you

place in pipe-work & is moved by compressed air.

This bung is called a pig and it is moved along the pipes to clean out any remaining product,

in this case oil, prior to dismantling the pipe-work for cleaning or pumping a different grade of oil.

Sensors fitted at each air valve detect the position of the pig and any failure would show up on the

PLC and, by means of a mimic diagram, provide the location of the fault. This also means that

any product left in the pipes is not wasted, and with runs of 100 metres or more the savings can

be considerable. On this project we are also able to monitor the system at the office via a modem

link with the PLC.

 

Our customers are always demanding something new, a different method of control, an electronic

device to suit a specific application or just advice on how to get the most out of a new installation.

We are here to help & provide a solution for any control problems, large or small.

We will provide a complete package including the control panels,any software required & the field

wiring (if required) to ensure confidence and peace of mind at the end of any contract.

 

Morrisons Distribution Centre (Wakefiled)

 

One of our largest installations to date was that of the new Morrisons distribution

warehouse in Wakefield. We were given the order to supply all of the refrigeration control panels

& the complete electrical installation of the refrigeration plant.

This included column heaters, all electric doors with PIR’s, dock levelers, all personnel doors,

ammonia leak detection system & sensors & emergency lighting.

The plant consisted of 4 screw compressors each rated at 132 kW & 1 rated at 90 kW.

The starters for the compressors were built into a multi-compartment Form 4 type control panel

with other sections to house the controls for the evaporative condenser, surge drum, PLC,

common controls & distribution.

This was also slightly unusual in that the main principle of control was JTL, as per Morrisons specification.

 

 

This meant that to keep cable runs to a minimum we had to manufacture a panel for

each evaporator. Each panel had it’s own JTL card and was mounted locally to the

evaporators above the cold store, with power supplied from the main control

panel & the JTL boards were networked back to the central system.

There were two main warehouses each with 7 big ceiling mounted evaporators, a lobby area,

a battery changing area (for forklift trucks) & a blast freezer. We also had to wire in booster

fans placed in the main warehouses to provide better air circulation.

All of the alarms were picked up & recorded by the JTL system, but at times when the only

person on site was the Security Guard at the gatehouse, no one would be aware of the faults

that occurred. Frostechnic used a radio transmitter in the building and a receiver in the gatehouse

to activate an alarm and alert the guard to any problems, which he could then report to an engineer.

 

 

The schedule on this project was extremely tight & we had to get it completed & ready for

use prior to the Christmas rush. Although sometimes these projects never run quite as planned,

and trying to get insulation contractors, pipe fitters, electricians & refrigeration engineers all to

work around the same piece of equipment at the same time can be a bit of a headache, the contract

was complete on time and everyone got their Morrisons Frozen turkeys in time for Christmas.

 

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